Happy Birthday Sonny!

A bit late here, but Sunday was the 72nd birthday of Sonny Chiba, a man who doesn’t get nearly enough credit for maintaining the 80’s ninja craze.

I really want to know what insidious anti-ninjite super villain blocked Kage no Gundan from getting international distribution back in the day. I would have traded a kidney in the mid-80s for the DVD library of his weekly ninja exploits I have now…

So happy birthday, and many more, to the man we’ve loved as Terry Tsurugi, Mas Oyama, a few space and sea-faring heroes here and there, and many more. Never mind giving us the definitive Hattori Hanzo’s and Jubei Yagyu’s of a genre packed with versions of these characters. Well done sir!

Welcome to VINTAGE NINJA -- dedicated to old ninja movies from Japan's 60's boom to the 80s American exploitation craze and beyond, with a ton of vintage toys, comics, and sharp pointy stuff thrown in for good measure.